The Wikileaks TPPA investment chapter showed our
government has agreed to special rights for foreign investors (including US and
Japan) to sue in shonky offshore tribunals. It has just done the same in a new
Korea deal.

What can I do?

Send a submission to the select committee on
the Korea deal until Friday
24 April. It won’t make any difference to that FTA because it’s
already signed and Cabinet controls the process, but it is a perfect way to
tell the government NO to ISDS (investor-state dispute settlement) in any deal,
including TPPA. Over 2000 people have done so already.

'Crony Capitalism Goes Global' (6mins) produced by Represent Us
(an anti-corruption organisation) does a nice job breaking down concerns about
TPP and ISDS for a popular (US) audience, available on Facebook and YouTube. (Pity they keep calling it a ‘trade’
deal tho.)

Lots of good media says NO ISDS …

Dita de Boni in NZ Herald on ‘Peters’
Mission to Save our Sovereignty’

Jane Kelsey in NZ Herald ‘Leaked text has all the
dangers govt promised to negotiate away.

Winston commits to Oppose TPPAThe TPPA featured at most election meetings
during the Northland by-eleciton. Winston committed to stop the TPPA in
Parliament (not sure how …)

More local councils sign on

More councils are signing up all the time, with the Hutt City Council adopting the Resolution on
24 March and some great work taking place in Tauranga, thanks to the great work
of the local TPPA Action Group chapters. Groser is getting so worried he
apparently held a special meeting with Local Govt NZ people and the Auckland
Council last week in Auckland.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE DEAL?

Latest US Con: ‘Fast Track’

Unlike NZ, the US Congress gets to approve any final TPPA. At
last, a number of governments including NZ have said they won’t make a final
deal unless Obama has ‘fast track’, which means Congress must vote yes or no
and can’t pick apart any ‘final’ TPPA. A bill giving fast track will be dropped
into the Congress this week. It won’t pass, but the US hopes introducing it
will be enough for other governments to sign a deal – another con job courtesy
of Uncle Sam.

Status of the negotiations

Obama and Japan’s PM Abe meet in the US at the end of April –
after that we’ll have a good sense if they can do the deal. The final
ministers’ meeting is slated for around 25 to 27 May – right at the end of
their window to complete by June. The chief negotiators are meeting on 23-26 April
near Washington DC to close any remaining issues they can and be ready for the
ministers.

OTHER NEW & RESOURCES

Al Jazeera exposes Big Pharma kills

Fire in the Blood shows the human price of new
rules on patents that make medicines unaffordable.

ISDS Corporate Attacks

This excellent website, established by Public
Citizen in the US, gives a huge amount of information on how ISDS works, how it
affects areas like health, climate change, enerfy, the environment, financial
stability and essential services, and how people are fighting back.

TTIP: Regulatory Cooperation - a Threat to Democracy

The EU activists have a great video on how the US-EU deal (TTIP) will
give corporations power of national regulations starting with chlorinated
chicken! Not exactly the same as TPPA but the same theme…